Workbench additions - DONE

[Hudson Carpentry]

After Mailee's thread about the clean shop and draw addition. I thought I would post the additions I made to my bench last monday.

My shop ain't clean or tidy so it really is just pictures of the bench.

After being told my wood order would not be ready till 3 (kids needed to be picked up at 3:30 and the wood yard is other side of Nottingham) I found myself with a free day. Im feed up of the bench always being full of tools and part projects leaving me just a little half metre square to work on. I have two other benches I can assemble on but there part of the 5m saw station so I tend to leave the fences in place.

Anyhow I came up with this. Nothing I do for my work shop is pretty or cut to perfection, as long as it does the job, is steady and will last that will do for me. Time is money and all that.

First addition was some shelving to house some of my sanders, routers and other loose tools. I wanted a shelf where I can keep placing power tools thats in use so there off the bench top.

The top shelf has a palm sander and belt sander which was used last and still plugged in.

Next was a cupboard and draw. Currently the cupboard is empty but it very large. I haven't measured it but im 6ft and 15stone and can get in the cupboard and shut the door, yes I have tried it :roll: . The draw isn't as long as the cupboard for a reason ill get to later.
Like I say nothing special to look at, handles are some I had laying about.

I have been meaning to put a draw under the bench since I made it. I get fed up of looking for tools on the bench or going elsewhere to search for one. So this draw houses common tools. It has compartments one for squares, bevels and measuring tools, one for the cheaper basic chisels and the other for things like mallets, hammers, screwdrivers, nail punches, grips, spanners etc etc.

The cupboard/draw isn't centre to the table (although not far off). It was placed where it would leave a gap so I could still get my stool under the desk. Also I have put my file and rasp set off the end of the bench. Its a great place for me as all I have to do is reach over. The cover to the roll there in stops them getting covered in dust.

More to come.......

 

[Hudson Carpentry]

The reason the draw didn't go all the way back to the end of the bench was to solve another problem. I tend to have a few projects on the go at a time. The cut pieces tend to end up on the bench and in the way.

So I left enough room behind the draw to slide projects in and store other components. You slide long timbers in via the shelf side and place smaller components in round the back (you can walk around the back and work from that side of the bench). There is enough room for more than 8" wide boards.

The last addition is an air line over the bench. I got fed up of blowing chippings while routing with jigs and walking over air lines so I ran a line over the beams and attached a coil line to hang over the bench. Its normally set up with a blow gun but it has enough coil in it to comfortably use a nail/brad gun, all around the bench. If I need a little more reach I have a second coil line I can attach and if that not long enough I have a 20-30m line next to the compressor.

And thats it. Feel free to nick any ideas!

 

[mailee]

I like your idea of the timber storage under the bench Huds. I too have the same problem when working on more than one project at once and the parts usually end up on the bench in the way. Hmm Good idea!

 

[Hudson Carpentry]

Thanks.

If I had the room I would have had a small full length rack from top to bottom to help further separate many different projects. Even though I have this "project storage" there are still parts of projects on the saw station which just need moving when I want to cut a long length up. I may make a deep pigeon hole type storage unit under/between one of the many legs for the saw station.